During the early 1990's, I had an agent for work in film and television. One night, she called me with a proposal. There was a film that was being planned for Charleston and Savannah. I asked her what the film was called, and she said "something Gump". I asked who had been cast for the film, and she told me that Sally Field had. The part that was being offered to me was of a man sitting on a park bench next to the male lead. At that time, the male lead had not been cast. I asked my agent what the film was about, and she said that it was about the South in the 50's and 60's. So, Sally Field was in it. I had worked with Burt Reynolds in "Semi-Tough" and had not had a favorable impression of him. Sally Field had done the "Smokey and the Bandit" films with him. I just thought this "Gump" movie would be a redneck movie about the South, so I turned it down. I asked my agent what else she had, and she said there was a movie being filmed in Columbia called "The Program". I asked her what that was about, and she said college football and steroids. That sounded more interesting, and I wouldn't have to travel, so I took that. By the way, every actor has a story like that where they passed on a project that would later turn out to be a hit and instead took a job where the film was not as good.
My friend Del and I were cast as football fans. The job was kind of like the one I had in "Semi-Tough", where they moved us around the stadium, depending on the game. It was November and very cold.
One of the stars of the film was Halle Berry. It was one of her first roles. She played a college student tutoring Omar Epps. At the time, she was married to David Justice who played baseball for the Atlanta Braves. He came over from Atlanta one day to visit her. During a break in the filming, I went over to David and we talked about baseball. All of a sudden, Halle Berry came over to where we were and pulled him away. She was mad and told him that he should be talking with her. He said he was just talking with me about baseball, but she said she didn't care and that I was nobody. It was obvious who wore the pants in that marriage. They got divorced a few years later. We were to shoot a scene that afternoon, where Halle would introduce Omar to the actor playing her father. All she had to say was "This is my father". 22 takes later, we lost the sunlight and had to come back the next day for her to get it right.
After seeing the film in the theater, there were huge continuity problems. The biggest was one of the games. They wanted to film an actual game during the football season to get the flavor of excited fans. The game they chose was a South Carolina-Tennessee game. The game was in September, and the fans were in short sleeves. By the time they filmed us in November, it was cold and people had on winter coats. So, one side of the stadium had summer clothing, and the other side had winter clothing. It was as if there was a 50 degree change from one side to the other. Also, those fans were wearing garnet or orange. Neither team on the field wore those colors. It was as if those fans showed up at the wrong game. There were other errors, but that was the worst.
James Caan was also in the movie, but he came in for a week of filming after most everyone else had left. So, I didn't get to work with him.
As for my agent, she left town with money from her clients including me. I guess that was for the best.
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